Exceptions That Make the Rule
by akurosa
Summary: The two were idiots and they were supposed to be easy targets. Luffy & Zoro & Nami friendship,


**a/n: I am so hopelessly fascinated with this trio. This was written in a rush but I hope you still enjoy it. **

These two are going to be easy targets. They don't have any money to speak of but they seem strong enough to be useful. They will be worth keeping around while she robs other pirates blind.

From Buggy's boat, Nami sizes the two up. The one with three swords is suspicious of her but he won't matter because he seems to follow whatever his captain says. The captain is dumb and Nami has no trouble making him agree to her conditions.

"Think of it as a give and take business deal," Nami tells him. "We're just helping each other out."

The rubber idiot replies, "Okay!"

ㅡ

Nami catches the gleaming gaze just as she crosses over to their boat, when the pitiful thing dips down under her weight.

"What are you doing?" He asks, voice low and rough with sleep.

"You two looked cold so I was going to give you these blankets."

Nami holds them out as proof but the swordsman only briefly eyes it. "I don't believe a word you say."

"Suit yourself," Nami throws both blankets over the sleeping one instead. The pirate barely stirs as the blankets settle over him.

'I'm not just talking about the blankets. You're always hiding something and Luffy," They both glance back at the snoring form. "He probably knows it too; he just doesn't care."

Having watched the rubber idiot get duped by a man who was challenging the pirate to a rigged magic trick on the last island, Nami highly doubts that but she lets the swordsman have his illusion of truth.

"In that case, neither of you would believe me even if I were honest," Nami steps back onto her boat, aware that the swordsman's gaze is trained onto her like a crouched predator watching from the shadows. However she's played this game for a long time with much more at stake; she knows better than to show weakness. Nami looks back to grin, wide, bright and utterly fake. "I guess I won't bother trying."

ㅡ

Pirates are disgusting fools who will try to use you at any chance they get. Nami knows this because nine years has given her a wide enough sample to generalize her assessment.

These two are disgusting and fools but they don't try to use her.

It doesn't mean anything, Nami tells herself. They are clearly the exceptions that make the rule.

ㅡ

"Na-mi! Look at this!"

"Zz…Zzz.."

"Hahahaha, you guys are such idiots!"

ㅡ

Nami feels safe. At first, she told herself it's because they are idiots and she could outsmart them if they even tried _thinking_ about pulling one over her. As time and islands pass along though, she stops thinking about why and begins indulging in the simple knowledge that they won't touch her treasure even if she leaves it unguarded. That she can show them her back just like how they show theirs to her.

"Cheers!"

Nami blinks and finds a jug of beer shoved half an inch from her face. The hand holding it leads to a cheerful rubber pirate who was told by some grateful townspeople that he and his friends would be fed to their heart's content.

"C'mon Nami! It's party for us! Cheers!"

Nami stares at him because he doesn't mean to get her drunk and watch her slip and make mistakes. He doesn't mean to get her defenses down and strike out to leave her helpless.

He just honestly wants her to be happy.

"Cheers," Nami thumps her jug against his and smiles back at Luffy. "Let's get drunk tonight."

ㅡ

Zoro drags both of their drunken asses back to their ships at four in the morning.

Nami wakes up when they are halfway to their docked ships at the port, jostled on Zoro's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She pretends to be asleep until Zoro notices her barely stifled laughter and immediately drops her. Luffy who is tucked under Zoro's other side like a second sack of potatoes snores on, oblivious to their bickering.

"_Ow _Zoro! You could have let me down a little more nicely!"

"You drool when you sleep."

"Haven't you ever learned to treat ladies nicely? We're very delicate creatures you know," Nami teases. She is taken back when Zoro's eyes which were focused on the full moon in the sky darkens with... something.

He only grumbles. "'Delicate creatures' don't drink the entire town under the table. You're a monster."

"Hmm," Nami is sure there is an insult there somewhere but with the wind blowing her hair back and the comforting buzz of alcohol, Nami feels almost free. "That makes three of us then."

Zoro throws his head back and laughs.

ㅡ

Luffy is one of the people Nami can't read. She has no idea what goes on in his head. Their enemies mock him that he is an idiot with rubber for brains but that is not (completely) true. Everything about Luffy is too _certain_ in everything he does for it to be true.

People ask him his dream and he tells them; he chooses a path and takes it.

Nothing can deter him or confuse him and Nami is sometimes ridiculously jealous of him because all he sees in the sea is adventure and it makes Nami wish she could too.

ㅡ

She disappears for two whole days and when she returns, Nami is significantly richer. When she reaches the shore they docked their boats, she finds Zoro on shore, cleaning his swords.

"You're in over your head aren't you," Zoro says as he watches her split the blood stained bills into separate bags for safekeeping. Nami doesn't know what it is he sees but he doesn't even have the decency of making it into a question and his certainty strikes a chord Nami thought was hidden deeper in her own heart.

"_I'm not_," Nami hisses, suddenly enraged and twisting around just as quickly. She shouldn't let him get to her but something about his nonchalance makes her want to reach out and hurt him because how dare he pass judgment on her when _he has no idea_. She's been taking care of herself for nine years now and has gone through more than he could possibly imagine. He knows nothing about her and he is wrong because she can do this. She _will_ steal as much as she has to, even if it means to shed blood to do it, if it will earn her the price of her island because without it, Nami knows that one day Arong will kill them all.

"You have _no_ idea what you're talking about because this has nothing to do with you and I. Am. _Fine_."

Zoro tells her. "I don't believe a word you say."

ㅡ

Nami doesn't know why she freezes up like a guilty child but she does when their skirmish with the local thugs are over and Zoro notices the bandages around her shoulder when she rips her left sleeve to tie it around the swordsman's arm and stench the bleeding.

The unflappable, indifferent swordsman's features are actually tense with confusion. Nami can see him mulling the past few days over in his head to figure out when Nami could have possibly gotten hurt.

She hasn't gotten hurt; it's just that the bandages are a poor attempt to hide the tattoo embedded into her skin from the world. She can never forget about the tattoo on her shoulder but she'll be damned if she lets other people find out.

Nami quickly tilts her body away, trying to shield herself from his gaze.

"What's going on?" Luffy saunters over to drape himself over Zoro. She wishes he'd pick his nose or pay attention to something equally dumb but he doesn't because Luffy is possibly the one man even more intuitive than Zoro and the one thing he never misses is pain. He tilts his head in what Nami is learning to recognize as concern.

Zoro doesn't answer him though Nami can't tell if it's in respect to her privacy or because he's still too busy thinking. When the swordsman shrugs, obviously giving up his attempt to remember, it is Nami's cue to sigh in relief because Zoro will let it go and she can go on pretending this moment never happened. Dinner will make them forget quickly enough, especially if she tells them it's on her and she's about to say just that when Zoro tells her.

"Give us a name Nami," The words are calm and matter-of-fact, like a friend who is asking a simple favor.

(Lend me a quill so I can write, pass me the salt on your left, Give us a name and we'll-)

Two pairs of eyes stare back at her with the same steady patience and Nami has a sudden fleeting_ hope_ that flashes through her mind by too quickly to stop and too clearly to deny, that she could give these two the hateful name and be free.

Then, Nami laughs because that is easier for her than to cry and tell them the truth.

"The chivalry is appreciated but I can handle myself. C'mon, let's go for dinner; it'll be my treat."

She hates Arlong and she hates herself, but in this very moment, she hates Luffy and Zoro a little too because they make her want to believe, to trust, and to wonder why she couldn't have met them faster.

ㅡ

_Help me_, Nami sobs.

Luffy replies, _Okay_.


End file.
